‘Tis the season for professional
development. To kick off a series of journalism galas, conferences and
award ceremonies, J-Source has created a roundup of event coverage, from
Esquire editor David Granger’s marquee speech to service articles on
investigative journalism, SEO writing and building budgets. Come back
here for ongoing coverage of all those events and ceremonies you’ll miss
while at the cottage.

Awards

CJF Awards
National
Magazine Awards
Canadian
Association of Journalists Awards
National
Newspaper Awards
Canadian
Society of Magazine Editors Awards
KRW business
journalism awards
RTNDA awards
Atlantic
Journalism Awards
PWAC
Awards
Michener
Awards
mesh
Awards
Quebec
Association of Magazines
Amnesty
International Canada Awards

Canadian
Association of Journalists conference

Ethics 2.0 –
dos and don’ts of social media

Do you fact-check all your
retweets? Do you publish rumours, or gossip? Is it OK to have an opinion
in your personal blog? These were just a few of the ethical questions
raised during a recent CAJ conference workshop titled “Ethics 2.0: The
do’s and don’ts of social media.” The discussion, led by journalism
professor and J-Source Ethics editor Ivor Shapiro and Vancouver Sun
managing editor Kirk LaPointe, looked at the problems – and potential
opportunities – that arise when journalists use social media to
communicate.

A guide to
investigating anything

Ever want to see inside the brain of
an investigative journalist? Harvey Cashore spent 15 years investigating
the missing Airbus millions, and half a year on a lottery theft exposé.
The senior producer has been involved in dozens of complex
investigations with his team at CBC’s the fifth estate and now the
Investigative Content Unit. He recently led a workshop at the CAJ
conference in Montreal titled “Managing Complex Investigations: four
steps to investigative happiness,” where he offered tips and tricks for
investigations big and small.

How do you
say mea culpa, 140 characters at a time?

In which Ivor
Shapiro, an old-dog reporter who just happens to be J-Source’s ethics
editor, explains how he learned, first-hand, that the new tricks of
real-time reporting can be perilous. As a penance for the journalist’s
first sin of not verifying before publishing, he assigned himself the
task of writing out what happened — in Tweet style.
(see
also: Stackhouse: relaunched Globe will not be a magazine)

Collective
Action Urge on Safety Training

The physical and emotional
wellbeing of Canadian journalists was front and centre on the second
day of the CAJ national conference in Montreal (May 28-30). Cliff
Lonsdale, president of the Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and
Trauma, moderated two sessions focusing on difficult assignments at
home and abroad. He says there are issues the whole industry needs to
get together to tackle. 

Magnet
2010

Esquire’s David
Granger: “Shouldn’t magazines be more?”

David Granger,
editor-in-chief of iconic men’s magazine Esquire, has turned the
magazine model inside-out in hopes of saving the “magic” of the medium.
Readers and advertisers are paying attention. He spoke at the opening
marquee for magazines conference Magnet.

Magnet
workshop: Editorial workflow – Meeting deadlines without micromanaging

Any
good managing editor will tell you that you can only control 80% of the
process of producing a magazine: That gives you enough time to handle
the 20% that will inevitably be chaos. That’s the reality facing three
managing editor panellists at a recent Magnet workshop called “Editorial
workflow: Meeting deadlines without micromanaging”.

Magnet
workshop: Wring cash from your budget (not your freelancers)

How
do you create the magazine I want on a tight budget? As budgets shrink
and costs continue to creep up, this question has never been more
important. Jessica Ross, executive editor of Homemakers and vice
president and secretary of Canadian Society of Magazine Editors (CSME),
led a workshop titled “Wring cash from your budget (not your
freelancers)” at Magnet

Magnet
workshop: SEO writing

Ray Litvak is the founder of Writing
Web Words, a company that helps local businesses raise their online
profiles using SEO. He led an SEO writing workshop at Magnet, an annual
magazines conference, where he offered up tips for conquering Google’s
search results page.

Canadian
Science Writers’ Association conference

What
do Embargoes Mean in an Era of Instant Reporting?

With the
rapid growth of the Internet, online news media and social media, there
is a huge temptation for reporters to break embargoes just to be the
first to get the story out first. That’s the theme of a workshop at the
Canadian Science Writers’ Association conference in Ottawa.

Essays
in biodiversity

Parks Canada requires credible, timely,
meaningful and usable applied and basic research to make responsible
planning, management, operational and policy decisions. Over 400 new
research projects are initiated annually, and are discussed in this CSWA
workshop.

Of Twitterati and WikiGnomes

Environment Canada’s Dr. Alex Bielak writes about a workshop at the Canadian Science Writers’ Association annual conference called “Social media, privacy issues and other public institution challenges in the digital age.”

CSWA workshop: Gonzo scientists get visual

In a panel discussion at the Canadian Science Writers’ Association conference, a group of scientists show off the latest accomplishments in visual communication, from dinosaurs that build themselves to augmented reality to a digital orgasm.

Climate change coverage: what’s a science journalist to do?

An overwhelming majority of peer-reviewed articles say that climate change is real, and man-made, and suggest we need to act now. But, in the name of balanced reporting, the press has given equal weight to both scientists and skeptics in climate change stories, fuelling the campaign of misinformation, Scott Unger writes. What’s a science journalist to do? This was the topic of a recent Canadian Science Writers’ Association conference workshop.

Says the artist to the scientist: “May I burn and crush this precious artifact?”

Artists, scientists and journalists have more in common than you think. A panel discussion at the recent Canadian Science Writers’ Association conference covered colour theory, Einstein and alternative uses for 12,000-year-old mastodon tusks.

Association of Electronic Journalists’ annual conference

RTNDA conference: Social media bootcamp

Social media can and must be used in newsrooms in this new age of journalism. That was the sentiment that echoed at one of the last sessions at the 2010 Association of Electronic Journalists (RTNDA) National Conference, the “Social Media Bootcamp.”

RTNDA conference: CP’s Eric Morrison wins president’s award

CEO of The Canadian Press, Eric Morrison, was presented with the President’s Award at the annual conference of the Association of Electronic Journalists (RTNDA).

RTNDA conference: state of the (electronic) industry

From learning how to deliver news across a variety of platforms to finding ways to better reach audiences, the final day of the 2010 RTNDA National Conference kicked off with a packed room eager to hear from a panel of six major players in electronic journalism on the state of the broadcast industry.

RTNDA conference: Going local in a new direction

A workshop at the annual conference of the Association of Electronic Journalists (RTNDA) featured broadcast experts that agreed keeping stories local is key to keeping audiences.